Scoppe column

Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

Wednesday

Sep 26, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Are you as upset with the NFL’s replacement refs as I am, especially in light of last night’s brutally bad call in the end zone on the final play in Monday night’s showcase affair between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks?

Are you as upset with the NFL’s replacement refs as I am, especially in light of last night’s brutally bad call in the end zone on the final play in Monday night’s showcase affair between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks?

Upset, but figure there’s nothing you can do as a fan?

Wrong.

You can do something. Boycott the NFL. Turn off the TV. Drop your fantasy team. Don’t Twitter about our favorite teams.

Spend Sunday afternoon cutting down on your Honey-Do list as fall hits home. Take the dog for a walk.

Forget the NFL.

Until, at least, the union-busting powers-that-be in the NFL’s offices get the message: Replacement refs need to be rejected and ejected.

Enough is enough.

We’re just three weeks into the NFL season and I can’t help but wonder if it can get any more embarrassing for the nation’s premier sport?

Instead of talking about the Seahawks’ unbelievable defensive effort against the Packers and their vaunted, high-scoring offense, everyone — at least everyone on ESPN and NFL Network, etc. — is talking about the bogus call in the end zone.

There’s no need to repeat the obvious and describe what happened. If you’re reading this, you have seen the video replay a few times, maybe a few hundred times.

Can you honestly say that Seattle wide receiver Golden Tate had simultaneous possession of the ball with safety M.D. Jennings?

Really?

It was clear Jennings had possession, period. Case closed. He had the ball cradled to his chest and Tate was hugging him and the ball.

Should Jennings have knocked the ball away instead of trying to intercept it? No doubt. That’s what defensive backs are taught to do.

And should the Packers have been in that situation to start with? Not if they had managed to get a first down moments earlier.

Make no mistake: Seattle outplayed the Packers and deserved to win, just not this way.

Former NFL standout receiver Chris Carter made a great point on ESPN when he asked a simple question: Had Jennings been the wide receiver and Tate the defender, what would the call have been given that scenario?

We all know that answer, don’t we?

To make matters worse, the “white hat,” or referee, never huddled with the two officials on the scene who made the call. One, after a glance at his cohort, crossed his arms over his head for an apparent touchback after an interception. The other signaled, less than emphatically for sure, a touchdown.

What did he see? We can only wonder.

Then the replay official upheld the ruling, which was a surprise.

What wasn’t a surprise, however, was the NFL office on Tuesday saying, in effect, yeah, there should have been a pass interference flag but the touchdown call was correct by our refs, who a year ago were officiating games in high school, lower-level college games and, by the look of it, the Lingerie Football League.

Would the regular officials made the same mistake? It’s possible. But they would have certainly huddled before going to the replay and, I believe, in this case they would have eventually got the call right.

That’s not to say the regular refs are perfect. No way. We all know that.

The reality is, however, that the game can’t be played without officials. Well, I guess it could be, but would we watch?

Maybe, since it might turn out to be the NFL’s version of MMA, with full pads.

The bottom line here is the bottom line. The NFL brass doesn’t want to bend to the demands of the officials’ union, which would reportedly cost each team about $100,000.

That’s a small price to pay to get the guys in the striped shirts back on the field who know what they’re doing. And while there will be mistakes — heck, a player probably makes a mistake on just about every snap even in the NFL — we’ll at least know the mistakes are being made by the best in the business.

That isn’t the case now, leaving us to laugh when you hear a guy on Twitter called Russell Wilson the first quarterback in NFL history to throw a game-winning interception.

It’s fun … and it’s sad.

And until the NFL brings back the real refs, I’ll be spending Sundays doing yard work or reading or watching reruns of NCIS.

What about you? You make the call.

Sports editor Rick Scoppe can be contacted via email at rick.scoppe@jdnews.com or by calling 910-219-8471.

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